Beloved of the Gods
by Skarleth
Summary: The slavers did not realise who it was that they were selling, if they did they would have got a much higher price for a half immortal.


**Beloved of the Gods**

Part 1 

A girl stood on the sunburnt plains of the desert with a grim light flickering in the depths of her eyes not cowed by the whip, which was brandished above her. Her blonde hair swirled like mist around her and her expression was fiery. Her fist was clenched and seconds after the whip came crashing down over her head she threw her self at the wielder. "Freedom!" she cried and set about with her bare hands trying to hit as many of the men as possible. Her efforts had a catastrophic effect on the men holding her. They were forced to retreat, bloodied and bruised, but they came again, and this time the swell of men was too much for her, outnumbered five to one she went down in a pile of arms, legs and rope.

"You scum!" she spat at her captors, receiving a back handed smack that made her see stars. "Just you wait, you'll pay for this". Despite the bonds that held her the men backed away, she had proved that she was dangerous. Only the captain of the band approached her "I doubt it, you're not going anywhere!" he chuckled and pulled on the ropes that were attached to her neck. They were face to face and she could smell his stinking breath on her face. There was a heavy thunk and the captain reeled back and fell down. The girl's head exploded in pain, but she thought it was worth it. "You cowards," she yelled "five of you against one girl, its pathetic!" she carried on like this until the captain knocked her over the head with a large chunk of dried desert wood and everything went black.

When she woke up she was in a cage, her hands were bound behind her back and she had a throbbing headache. "That was very brave of you," came a voice from beside her. "What's your name?"

"Carena" said the girl, raising her hands to feel her bruised and battered face; she had one black eye, but apart from that had got off surprisingly lightly. "Where are we?" asked Carena, glancing around her to glean some information. "I don't know," replied the girl, "but I think that they are taking us to a city." They were in a litter; Carena was the only one in a separate cage. It seemed that they deemed her too dangerous to allow her to mix with the other girls; the idea made her chuckle. "So, who are you?" she asked her newfound friend. "Aryanna," she whispered in reply, "there are about twenty other girls here, all about our age, I come from the foothills of the Pyreneans, and I was one of the first here."

"But what do they want us for!" came a moan from another cage.

"I want to go home." A girl sobbed. This is not my day, thought Carena; she began testing the wooden bars, to see if she could get through any of them, they were crudely made so it was not difficult. Carena waited patiently until the litter stopped moving, night was falling and with it the light was slowly fading away. With a small groan, Carena mustered all of her remaining strength and threw her self against the wall of her cage. It worked, she thought elatedly as she feel out onto the dusty road but with her hands behind her back it was difficult. She quickly got to her feet and began to tug at the sandy ropes, which held together the main cage, she could not see what she was doing. "Come here," called Aryanna who set to work with nimble fingers on the ropes that restricted her hands. Carena was free but the other girls were still trapped, she set to work, trying to loosen more bars. However the escape attempt was short lived as lights were turned on and a piercing alarm was sounded. "Go, without us if you have to!"

"Escape while you can!" the girls urged Carena onwards. She hated herself for leaving them but had no choice. With one last tug on the rope, she sprinted out into the vine groves ahead of her and then into a forest.

She ran as fast as she could, stumbling over the roots of the far-reaching trees. She could hear her heartbeat pounding in her head. Her breathing came hard and fast, she could still hear voices behind her, and knew that she had not outrun them yet. Carena could not keep up such a fast, desperate pace and began to stumble. Shadows formed on the trees as the men came closer. Finally Carena stopped, hoping to catch some breath before fighting them again, she knew that she could not escape now, but intended to fight all the same. The men came panting and out of breath, this was the hardest they had had to work for one slave. This is it, she thought, this is going to hurt like hell. However the men had learned from their last fight with her, rather than come to close, they waited in a circle, every time she tried to attack one of them, they just stepped back and widened the circle. She had never had any luck, if only she had decided to walk in the woods at home on a different day, yet the world is full of "if only" and there is nothing you can do about it, she thought wistfully. Her hands were balled into hard little fists but they never advanced, she was one of the amazons and they feared her. She laughed wildly and started to insult them, insolent cowards, dogs, scum of the earth yet there was no escape they had waited for a reason. Slowly one of their numbers came from the back of the mob. He was tall, taller than the captain and he carried a long mace. Slowly and deliberately he swept her legs from under her, there was nothing she could do despite her best efforts to avoid him. The mace was far longer than her arms length and her loss of balance lost her the fight. She was bound again and forced inside the cage.

"It was a good try," said Aryanna soothingly. Carena spat on the ground with disgust, they had left her tied to the cage and her limbs were agony, she could not longer feel her hands and feet. "We are almost there, I think." She said, there was a citadel in the distance, "the men are restless, they know it is almost over."

"You think? What will happen to us?" Aryanna sounded worried and she had a right to be, deep down all the girls knew what slavery meant for women.

"Don't worry about it, it will come out right in the end, the Gods will protect us." Said one of the girls from the back, she belonged in a temple thought Carena; in real life placing hope in the Gods was futile.

At dusk the next day they entered the outskirts of the city, the smell was unbearable. Drains, sewage and human waste were rank in the air and the people staring at them made it worse. They no longer had an identity, they were objects to be bought and sold, used and discarded. Hands reached through the cages hoping to grabs some small bit of flesh and gratify themselves; this went on until the slavers covered up the cages with heavy blankets and stolen wall hangings. The dark was suffocating.


End file.
